Hours before Indian Premier Narendra Modi landed in Riyadh on his first-ever visit to Saudi Arabia; Indian media went gaga over reports of Saudi and American authorities joining hands to sanction Pakistani individuals and terrorist entities inimical to Indian interests.
As usual analysts sought to link this unprecedented step, aimed at disrupting Al-Qaeda, Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s (LeT) fundraising and support networks across South Asia and Middle East, to Modi’s Saudi tour, with some going to the extent of describing it as a big Saudi snub to New Delhi’s bête noire Islamabad.
Unfortunately, Indian spin doctors have gone too far in giving a subtle twist to a routine Saudi-US anti-terrorism action plan that the two nations have been working on assiduously without unnecessary drum-beating and chest-thumping.
True, the US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against four individuals who are known to be LeT operatives and one among them even bankrolled Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the alleged mastermind of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. But the fact is, as one influential source pointed out to this writer, Pakistan is also a willing partner in keeping elements with a history of aiding and abetting violence, by exploiting unsuspecting religious institutions and charities, on a tight leash.
As rightly asserted by Adam Szubin, acting under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence in US Treasury Department “such an action marks yet another step in Treasury’s efforts to financially cripple terrorist financiers and demonstrates the United States’ and Saudi Arabia’s shared resolve to target those who support terrorism.”
And the unsolicited push to put India in one bracket with Riyadh and Washington vis-à-vis anti-terror collaboration is nothing but an overzealous attempt to checkmate Pakistan strategically in a turf where Islamabad, to New Delhi’s utter dismay, has turned into a significant player without whose cooperation regional stability is virtually unachievable.
Instead of using Saudi Arabia’s good office subtly to corner Pakistan, New Delhi should join hands with Islamabad to honestly give peace a chance to win in a region still beset with extreme poverty and backwardness.
Let us not forget that despite the skirmish in Kargil and notwithstanding the daring attack on Indian Parliament, Modi’s illustrious predecessor A.B. Vajpayee did not shy away from traveling to Pakistan and neither abandoned the policy of reconciliation. As this writer recall, Vajpayee privately conceded the fallacy of extreme nationalism or an unnecessarily aggressive foreign policy and shared his resolve to try to end the decades-old animosity in the subcontinent.
That he did not succeed despite having almost reached a point of breakthrough is another matter, but his successor in office Manmohan Singh too treaded the Vajpayee line, even at the cost of being accused of betraying national interest. But what is most intriguing is the complete lack of synergy between Modi’s office and India’s strategic security establishment, which incidentally comes under Prime Minister’s Office’s direct purview.
Now that Modi is seemingly ready to engage with Pakistan positively, why is the Indian security paraphernalia still hanging on to the Doval doctrine of maintaining a surreptitious defensive offense posture against Pakistan, thereby putting innocents across India’s western frontier at risk?
As a media adviser to a former Indian premier rightly observed, 20 months of real-time encounter with reality prompted Modi to undertake course correction and liberate himself of rhetorical jingoism.
The overt presence of an official from ISI in Pakistan’s Pathankot probe team scavenging for clues on Indian soil — for the first time in independent India’s history — is a clear indication of Modi’s readiness to chart a new course in a tensed India, Pakistan relationship and do normal business with his Pakistani counterpart, notwithstanding rabid anti-Pakistan rants — often becoming synonymous with Islamophobia — from his ideological brethren.
It is high time Modi encouraged fellow hard-liners to stop cultivating animosity for the sake of sub-continental amity. Instead of drawing meaningless red lines over Pathankot, as Indian sovereignty could not have been violated without local support, Modi must join hand with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to declare war against poverty and extremism.
